Monday, November 29, 1999

NY bomber wanted to join Afghan war

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On February 25, 2006, Faisal Shahzad sent an e-mail message to a group of friends. The trials of his fellow Muslims weighed on him - the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the plight of Palestinians, the publication in Denmark of cartoons lampooning the Prophet Muhammad.Shahzad understood the notion that Islam forbids the killing of innocents, he wrote. But to those who insist on "peaceful protest," he asked: "Can you tell me a way to save the oppressed? And a way to fight back when rockets are fired at us and Muslim blood flows?"Yet, Shahzad - a Pakistani immigrant then 26-years-old - seemed to be thriving in the West. He worked as a financial analyst at Elizabeth Arden. He had just received his green card. He owned house in Shelton, Connecticut.Four years later, Shahzad stands accused of planting a car bomb in Times Square. After his arrest two days later, details that surfaced echoed a familiar narrative about radicalisation in the West: His anger towards the US seemed to have grown with his personal struggles. He had lost his home to foreclosure last year.But the roots of Shahzad's militancy appear to have sprouted before. His argument with American foreign policy grew after 9/11. As Shahzad became more religious, starting around 2006, friends recalled, he began distancing himself from the liberal, elite world of his father Bahar ul-Haq a retired vice marshal in the Pakistani Air Force. He still owned his home and held a full-time job when he began signaling to friends he wanted to leave the US.During a visit to Pakistan in 2008, Shahzad asked his father for permission to fight in Afghanistan. Haq denied the request. Shahzad was also pressuring his wife to wear a hijab, said Dr M Saud Anwar, who shares acquaintances with Shahzad. He also insisted that the family return to Pakistan.In April 2009, the month Shahzad got his US citizenship, he sent an e-mail to friends. He criticised the views of a moderate Pakistani politician, writing, "When it comes to defending the lands, his opinion would be we should do dialogue." Shahzad urged recipients of the message to find "a proper Sheikh to understand the Quran." When one responded by asking which sheikhs Shahzad followed, he replied, "My sheikhs are in the field." A few months later, he left for Pakistan, where officials say, he was later trained by the Pakistani Taliban.

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